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Chun Hua Catherine Dong

Chun Hua Cathering, “The Double” Photo: David Romero

The Double
Chun Hua Catherine Dong

Sixteen females wear red mouthpieces and white bath towels, standing in a row and facing the same direction. They repeat three still gestures: standing, kneeing, sitting and lying on the floor. The performers hold each gesture for five minutes and then move to another gesture.

Mouth serves as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. However, when performers wear the mouthpieces, or when women’s mouth is forced to open, the mouth loses its function. In fact, it silences and disables the women because they are unable to talk when their mouths are widely pulled open. This performance explores another side of the unseen and unspoken—the vulnerability, struggle, shame, and suffering that we are uneasy to share and expose.

It has been performed at Kaunas Biennial, The National Museum of M. K. Čiurlionis, Lithuania, Ancienne Ecole Des Beaux-Arts, Place-des-arts, Montreal, Art Souterrain Contemporary Art Festival in Montreal.